QUOTE: The fate of the wicked being
open to conversion so long as they live does not preclude their being open also
to the just punishment of death. Indeed the danger threatening the community
from their life is greater and more certain than the good expected by their
conversion. Besides, in the hour of death, they have every facility for turning
to God by repentance. And if they are so obstinate that even in the hour of
death their heart will not go back upon its wickedness, a fairly probable
reckoning may be made that they never would have returned to a better mind. (Summa Contra Gentiles, Book III, 147)
AUTHOR: Saint Thomas
Aquinas, O.P. (1225 – 7 March 1274), also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an
Italian Dominican priest of the Roman Catholic Church, and an immensely
influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known
as Doctor Angelicus ([the] Angelic Doctor), Doctor Communis, or Doctor
Universalis. "Aquinas" is not a surname, but is a Latin demonym for a
resident of Aquino, his place of birth. He was the foremost classical proponent
of natural theology, and the father of Thomism. His influence on Western
thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy was conceived in
development or refutation of his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics,
natural law, metaphysics, and political theory. Thomas is held in the Catholic
Church to be the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood. The works
for which he is best-known are the Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra
Gentiles. As one of the 33 Doctors of the Church, he is considered the Church's
greatest theologian and philosopher. Pope Benedict XV declared: "This
(Dominican) Order ... acquired new luster when the Church declared the teaching
of Thomas to be her own and that Doctor, honored with the special praises of
the Pontiffs, the master and patron of Catholic schools."
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